AMP pages aren’t fast because of the AMP format. AMP pages are fast when you visit one via Google search …because of Google’s monopoly on preloading:

Technically, a clever trick. It’s hard to argue with that. Yet I consider it cheating and anti competitive behavior.

Preloading is exclusive to AMP. Google does not preload non-AMP pages. If Google would have a genuine interest in speeding up the whole web on mobile, it could simply preload resources of non-AMP pages as well. Not doing this is a strong hint that another agenda is at work, to say the least.

Ooh, this is clever! Scott shows how you can use rel="preload" to conditionally load JavaScript (say, for screens above a certain size). The browser support isn’t quite there yet, but the thinking here is smart.

A comprehensive overview of rel="preload" which looks very useful indeed …I just wish it wasn’t (like “nofollow”) a nonsensical value for the rel attribute: a resource can’t have a relationship of “preload” to the linking document.